Cardiac muscle fibers 6. describe the structural and functional properties of cardiac muscle, and explain how it differs from skeletal muscle. role of gap junctions or intercalated discs.

Cardiac muscle are striated and branched; found only in the heart; involuntary; singulated (one cell receives a signal to contract, all neighboring cells are stimulated and contract together to produce a heart beat)

skeletal muscle contains nerve endings; is a voluntary muscle; striped/striated, multi-nucleated (has many nuclei); attached to the bones of the skeleton